Actor Josh Brolin, who plays a police sergeant in the upcoming Hollywood movie, "Gangster Squad," was arrested Wednesday after police found him heavily intoxicated and unable to care for himself on a Santa Monica sidewalk, police said on Saturday.

Brolin was contacted by police in the 1600 block of Ocean Avenue around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, said Santa Monica Police Sgt. Richard Lewis.

Brolin was held in custody on a misdemeanor public intoxication charged and released.

"This was a booking only to hold him until he sobered up," Lewis said. "We do not normally file any charges on persons for simple intoxication."

Police said they would only book someone on a more serious charge and request that the City Attorney's Office prosecute if that person became a "chronic drain on resources" or has multiple arrests, Lewis said.

"In this case," Lewis said, "no further action is being sought."

Brolin's profile on imdb.com said his "rugged features" and "natural charm" have worked for him.

The son of actor James Brolin, his star has risen recently. He's played roles as a policeman, a hunter, and the President of the United States.

In his most recent film, "Gangster Squad," he plays Sgt. John O'Mara on a Los Angeles Police Department unit that chases notorious mobster Mickey Cohen.

Calls and emails to Brolin's agent had not been returned Saturday evening.

When John Krasinski moonlights from “The Office” he doesn’t mess around.

For the film “Promised Land,” Krasinski took on more than one side gig: not only does he act in it, he also concocted the story and screenplay with author Dave Eggers and co-star Matt Damon, and served as a producer.

Centered on the environmental effects of fracking, a controversial means of extracting natural gas, “Promised Land” represents Krasinski’s latest bid to expand his Hollywood horizons as the “The Office” ends its final season. Krasinski sat down recently to talk about his new film and what the future holds.

On the how the story’s setting inspired the issue at the core:

I had the idea for the script about two years ago, and my dad grew up in a small town outside of Pittsburgh in Natrona Heights, which was a steel mill town, and his dad worked three jobs, and they didn't have very much. And I remember when he was telling us, when I was a little kid – I was an ignorant eight-year-old – and I said, ‘So was your childhood awful?’ And he was like, ‘No, it was amazing. We had friends and family, and there was a sense of community and the faith that tomorrow would be a better day.’ And that really stuck with me my whole life, and I think the older I got, the more I realized that the country was moving away from that sort of pure ideal of community. So that's what the idea came from, and that's where I really started. So natural gas came in as an issue later on in the project once we had started coming up with these characters and this town and these groups of people that were going to interact, and it turned out to be the best backdrop for the story because it was basically just like high-stakes poker. There was so much potentially to gain and so much potentially to lose

On the reaction of the real people of Pennsylvania grappling with fracking’s pros and cons:

The really moving part was when we actually went to shoot in the town, they were so generous and so open to have us. But at the same time, people weren't against coming up and telling you how they really felt. And there were people who came up and said, ‘You shouldn't be making this movie. This is really good for us.’ And five minutes later, someone would come up and say, ‘Thank you for making this movie.’ We never expected it to be the movie that deals with this issue. Our whole thing was at the end to start a conversation, and whether it's fracking or something else, it's like these issues are something that have communities getting together and making decisions for themselves… is really the most important thing, especially this day and age.

On attempting to depict the residents of small town America without condescending or pandering:

I think sometimes the movies just show small town America as the people who just get bowled over by anyone who has an idea and in comes innovation and creators, and they just push these people aside. That's not the truth at all. These people are very dedicated to their opinions and very proud of where they're from. And that was the thing about getting there and first of all seeing how gorgeous it was. I mean it was beautiful…The truth is that you see what these people are fighting for. And when I say what they're fighting for, I don't mean either side of the issue. What I'm saying is that they are fighting for what everybody else is fighting for: their family, their friends, what they are from and where they're going. And it's a self-protective survival mode, and that's what's so admirable about these people really digging in on these issues. And it's happening all over the country.

On writing the screenplay with Matt Damon:

I met Matt when he was doing a movie with my wife [Emily Blunt], ‘The Adjustment Bureau,’ and we became friendly right away – which was really nice because being from Boston, the guy from ‘Good Will Hunting’ is pretty much the mayor of some fictitious town. One day we were on a double date, and he said, ‘I'm actually thinking of directing. Is there anything you that have in the works that you'd be willing to share with me?’ I said ‘Yeah’ and I brought him this idea, and he jumped onto it right away. We were writing within a week or two, and it worked really, really well. He actually was shooting ‘We Bought a Zoo’ in California at the time, and I was shooting my show ‘The Office,’ so we were kind of moonlighting. We worked really well together. We worked really fast. We have similar sensibilities and similar sense of humors, but at the end of the day, I think we're eternal optimists, so we wanted the same thing. We wanted this to be an uplifting kind of Frank Capra, Kazan movie. Where we were headed was always the same, so getting there was a lot quicker.

On where writing fits into his future after “The Office” ends:

I'm definitely going to cultivate it further. This was an incredible learning experience for me on every level, but I think, if I'm honest, the truth is it's a really big moment for me. This is a transition from the show that I think is meaning more to me than I think anybody knows. I think to have this show end is going to be such an incredibly emotional moment for me. Not only because of the show and the cast and the crew and that family aspect, but it's an era of my life that's going to be gone – and it is my twenties, basically. It's one of the most important decades of my life was spent with this show. And I owe it absolutely everything. No one would know my name if it wasn't for that show, and I wouldn't have any opportunity if it wasn't for this show, to sort of grow up and have that show support me. If someone asks me ‘What would you do if we gave you the keys?’ ‘This is the movie that I'd do if you gave me the keys.’ This is the kind of thing I've always been interested in. These are the characters that I've always been interested in watching or interested in playing, so I really want to do it more. And to have this team surrounding me – to write with Matt and to have Gus on board – it was so surreal and so inspiring, but also probably spoiled me because now I'm just like, ‘All I have to do is write some sort of document, then all of a sudden, Matt Damon and Gus Van Sant will sign on. How hard is this, folks?’ I don't know how the next ones are going to turn out, but also at home my wife was hugely supportive. And I'd always heard that story that the blank, white page is a scary thing. I'm like, ‘Come on – there are bigger things to be scared of.’ Then you sit down, and you realize, like, ‘Wow, that IS pretty scary.’ So she was the one who just kept saying ‘You can do it,’ and ‘Get up there and give it a couple more hours.’ And sure enough, it clicked, and I really, really loved it. So I'm going to give it a shot, and hopefully keep going as long as there's stories that I can tell well. And until then, I'll at least give it a shot.

Matt Damon is one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, so it’s not surprising that he had issues carving out the time to write and direct his passion project “Promised Land.” Fortunately, some close friends had his back.

When it came to crafting his screenplay about a conflicted gas company rep who heads to America’s Heartland to buy up land for the controversial drilling process known as fracking, Damon, already an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, teamed with actor John Krasinski, who in turn brought in his friend, acclaimed novelist David Eggers.

Damon befriended Krasinski’s while working opposite the "Office" star's wife, Emily Blunt, in “The Adjustment Bureau.” In addition to co-writing, Krasinski took on the role of Damon’s eco-minded nemesis in the film.

And when Damon realized he needed a director, he turned to another friend, “Good Will Hunting” helmer Gus Van.

The "Promised Land" star and producer sat down recently to talk about the huge lift he got from his friends, how he recruited Frances McDormand and Hal Holbrook, and whether he’s ready to re-team with another old pal, Ben Affleck, for a future film.

Has being a parent made you more environmentally conscious?

Probably, yeah. I thought a lot, before I had kids, what kind of world we're leaving them. I think it gave me pause. The world is fraught with so many challenges and perils. Kids don't ask to be here. We bring them here, and then it's like, ‘Hey – this is the fix you're in. Sorry.’ I did think about that, but ultimately, problems get fixed when people get engaged with them, so I figured why not raise some kids who are smart and conscientious and good citizens and want to pitch in and maybe they'll clean up some of these problems.

You’ve compared this process to when you write with Ben Affleck.

Yeah. I think because we're all actors, the way we write: we get up, we're walking around, we're improvising. We're playing all the different characters, and then pretty soon the characters start to talk back at you because you start to realize how they'd answer certain things, and that's when it gets really exhilarating. And that was the same with writing with both guys. We realized that for some reason I write with guys who are taller than me, funnier than me. I don't know what that is, but I guess I subconsciously seek out certain qualities in a writing partner.

What made Gus the go-to director when it turned out you wouldn’t be able to direct as originally planned?

He's such a humanist –the performances in Gus's movies, from his little movies to his bigger movies, always have that feeling of being captured. He just has a way of getting real human behavior out of the actors. There're the Hal Holbrooks, where you don't have to do much to get human behavior out of an actor of that stature and experience, but also the local folks and the people who we use in the movie who fill out the whole cast, Gus just has a way of putting everybody at ease, just filming the real world. And that's what we really wanted with this, was for it to feel like a moment in time in the country, where we are now, where we are today. John and I joke that my best contribution as a producer was firing myself(as director).

How did you land Frances McDormand?

Early on, we decided to write that part for Fran. I met Fran and worked with her in 1994, 18 years ago – she played my mom in a TNT movie that Tommy Lee Jones directed – so I kept in touch with her over the years and seen her sporadically, and I just love her. I love her work. At the same time, I was going to direct the movie, and we had an early draft of the script and I've shown it to Ben Affleck, to Cameron Crowe. John had shown it to Aaron Sorkin, and we’d gotten really positive feedback from those guys. So we said, ‘Okay. We're not crazy. She lives near me in New York, and I printed out a copy, and I walked over and left it at her apartment building. She wrote back like the next day and she said, ‘I'm in – I love it.’ That was a huge kind of milestone for us in the whole process, because not only did we get validation from a great actress and know that our script was in pretty good shape, but we also knew that we really were writing for her.

Equally huge would be bringing in Hal Holbrook.

That character's got to speak to the older America and where we've come from, and very simply and with great authority. So we just looked at a list of all the actors who were over 70 who we felt could do that, and there are a handful... Hal's 88 now and he's just the guy…The first town hall scene, we originally overwrote, because we didn't know how much of the pro- and anti-fracking arguments we were going to use, so we just literally wrote all of them and it was a 15-page scene. But we decided ‘Why don't we just shoot all of it, and then in the edit we'll cull it down.’ And so that's what we did – but Hal showed up in the first take and he just goes all the way through the dialog. I mean, he was just such a pro The guy is just a horse of a man.

How hard is it to play a character who lies so convincingly and isn’t telegraphing it to the audience. Is that a tricky thing to wrap your head around?

He believes he's giving them the medicine they need, and that first scene sets up that idea of a guy who's seen industry leave. He's got this rage, and it’s also that kind of streak of self-loathing that you get in those great [Elia] Kazan protagonists. But he's not wrong either. So that's what we wanted. We wanted it to feel really complex, and there aren't any one-dimensional characters or easy answers.

Do you and Ben have a project that you'd like to get around to together at some point?

We're developing a few. There's one Whitey Bulger project that we were looking at… But the big question of it is, what's your way in? It's tough. They're the biggest batch of irredeemable...

"Promised Land" opens in limited release Dec. 28

]]>Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:41:06 -0400http://media.nbcwashington.com/images/213*120/abrams_81930212.jpgDirector J.J. Abrams chats with Access' Scott "Movie" Mantz about his vision for the opening sequence of "Star Trek Into Darkness." What was he trying to accomplish? Plus, what were the biggest challenges of this project? And, what qualities does he think makes for a fun "bad guy"?

After making the comedy “The Guilt Trip” together, screen and song icon Barbra Streisand and comedy star Seth Rogen ended up with such an authentic-feeling mother/son dynamic, one practically expected Streisand to rub schmutz from his cheek and question his choice in clothing.

The two actors’ genuine, compelling chemistry fuels the road trip-style comedy which sees Rogen’s reticent young chemist trying to sell his environmentally friendly housecleaning fluid embarkson an ill-advised cross-country trek with his ceaselessly smothering mother (Streisand). And no one, it seems, was more pleased at the maternal connection than the stars.

On the beginnings of their on-screen rapport:

Barbra Streisand: Seth sussed me out. He called people from the Focker movies, right?

Seth Rogen: Yeah, I was actually working with John Schwartzman, who was the cinematographer on ‘Meet the Fockers,’ at the time this came up – I asked him what he thought of Barbra, and he said she was great. I know [‘Meet the Fockers’ director] Jay Roach a little, so I asked him. I think he said that she was awesome, too. Ben Stiller, I might have run into and asked. Yeah, everyone – this Barbra Streisand lady checked out, so I thought I'd give her a shot.

Streisand: I didn't know who to call. I don't know any of those people from his movies, so what I was going to do? I thought he was adorable, so I thought, this is interesting, unlikely which makes it interesting, and yet, we're both Jewish. I could be his mother.

Rogen: But when we met, we got along. We got along very well.

Streisand: Instantly.

Rogen: The way we talk in real life is not entirely different than our rapport in the movie, in some ways. We were getting along. It’s a lot of me trying to explain things to her about modern times. And her trying to feed me s**t I don't want to eat.

Streisand: But he would show me things – like, yesterday he asked me if I had a Twitter account. I said ‘I don't know.’

Rogen: And I showed her that she did.

Streisand: Which I only use for political purposes. So I didn't know it was beyond that. I wouldn't know how to find it on my phone.

Rogen: I'll show you. I change her clocks during daylight savings. I do all that.

Streisand: He's very handy.

On their own parent/child relationships:

Streisand: My son doesn't see me as an icon. He sees me as his mother who touches his hair too much. He was very important in my decision to make the movie because he was recovering from back surgery, so he was in bed for a few days after. And I brought the script over and read it out loud, and it was interesting, actually. His father [Elliott Gould] was in the room, too – Isn't that funny? We were both coddling our son. So he became the audience, and Jason was reading all the parts with me. And he said, ‘I think you should do it, mom.’ And I really trust his integrity and his opinion. He has great taste in whatever he chooses to do – it's amazing. So he clinched the deal.

Rogen: I think my mom drives me crazy sometimes. I have a good relationship – I see my parents a lot, but, yeah, it's a lot like in the movie. For no reason I get annoyed. I'll just find myself kind of reverting back to like a mentality of like a 14-year-old kid who just doesn't want to be around his parents. It's one of the things I related to most in the script, honestly. It was just that dynamic where your mother's trying, and the more she tries, the more she bugs you. And the more it bugs you, the more she tries. And you like see her trying to say the thing that won't annoy you, and she can't. Yeah, all that is very, at times, real to my relationship with my mother.

Streisand: Mothers develop guilt trips. When I was working a lot and I felt guilty as a parent that I couldn't pick up my son every day from school, bake him cookies, that kind of thing. So I know that feeling. I know that feeling a lot. And so you try to compensate and everything they do is great. They sense that guilt, children, and they're going through their own rebellious times or whatever. Having a famous parent is an odd thing, you know? So I thought it was interesting to investigate this trying to be my son's friend, versus being a mother. And when it comes to time to really say ‘You abused me. You disrespect me. You talk back to me. You don't honor what I say. You won't take my advice.’ That kind of thing, in terms of this movie, it hit on all those things that I thought I could explore.

On how Streisand was convinced to take on the role:

Streisand: It was time to challenge myself again, you know? Of course, I made it very difficult for them to hire me because I kept wanting an out some way. So I made it really hard. I really don't want to go – I never do this normally, right – I really don't want to schlep to Paramount. It's two hours each way. So would you rent a warehouse and build the sets in the Valley no more than 45 minutes from my house? And they said yes. And on these Focker movies, I had to get up early, and I'm not an early bird – and Seth says, ‘It's very hard to be funny at 7:30 in the morning.’ He's right. He has to have a few cups of tea. You have to feed him a little bit…

Rogen: Get my head right.

Streisand: So I said, you can't pick me up until 8:30 because that's like a normal time to get up for me, because I love the night. My husband and I stay up until 2, 3 in the morning, so we don't function that well at 6 in the morning. And they said ‘Okay.’ I said to Anne [Fletcher, the director] ‘Well, would you make the movie without me?’ And she said no. And I felt bad, guilty – another guilt trip, right? I said ‘Oh, no – she's not going to have this job, and I want her to work.’

Rogen: I was open to Shirley MacLaine.

Streisand: Is that what you said to them?

Rogen: [Laughs] No – that's not true. I only would have done it if Barbra was doing it. For me, it was funny: ‘They want you to do this movie with Barbra,and Barbra's not sure if she wants to do it.’ And I was like, ‘Well, just let me know if she says yes.’ And then I literally made like two movies during that time. And we were editing ‘50/50,’ and I got a call, like ‘Barbra said yes.’ ‘Oh, okay –Great!’

In “The Impossible,” Naomi Watts takes on a role based on the real-life experiences of Maria Belon, the Spanish woman whose family was caught during a Christmas getaway at the center of the powerful tsumani that ravaged Thailand in 2004.

The details of what the Belons went through during the devastation that ensued is equal parts startling and disturbing.

Watts, who just earned Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for her portrayal and is already on many critics’ shortlists as a serious best actress contender come Academy Awards time, reflects on how she brought the terrifying true tale of survival to life.

This film hits audiences on a very basic human level. As a parent, it must have been heart-rending to enact such an experience.

When my agent called and said there's this script about the tsunami, at first I was thinking ‘No, that's not sounding like a good idea. Is it just going to be a disaster movie, lots of screaming and flailing about in the water? Is it going to become spectacular? It doesn't feel right. In fact, it feels wrong given how many lives were taken.’

But then I heard that it was Juan Antonio Bayona, a director who's a proper filmmaker. So that peaked my interest, and then I read the script – and right from the first four or five pages I knew I was going to do it. It just felt incredibly truthful, and of course, I soon learned later that it was told from Maria's perspective and her family's.

There were plenty of extreme physical challenges for you in the role.

I knew it was going to be a tough one, physically – [working with] water always is, and it lived up to its reputation – but this story inside of the important, powerful disaster that took the lives of so many and affected the lives of so many was a really beautiful piece of intimate storytelling about family. So you forget. ‘Oh, this is going to be a hard day's work for six months’ – you push all that aside. I mean, When I finished ‘King Kong’ and it being so physically taxing on my body, I remember swearing off anything active or action-driven, but I guess you forget. It's sort of like childbirth, isn't it? You just go through it again.

Was there anything borderline scary that happened with the physical aspects of shooting the tsunami?

Yeah, the underwater scene: when you throw away the oxygen, you're on your own and you release yourself from the chair. Obviously, you want them to get the best shot, so you push yourself to the edge, and I always want to give the most I can give. I got to my limit and I started trying to undo the buckle, and I couldn't get out of the chair. In fact, the chair started spinning in the other direction, and I thought, ‘Oh, gosh, is the director trying to get extra fearful emotion out of me?’ And then the chair finally stopped, and I came to the surface [gasping]. Full of panic.

I got the teeny-weeniest little glimpse of what it's like to be holding your breath beyond what you're capable of or want to. Obviously, Maria went way beyond that stage and actually gave up. She wasn't fearful anymore or panicky. She just, went, ‘Okay – I'm being taken.’ But it filled me with panic and kind of rage. And anyway, it turned out it was just a technical problem.

How was your experience with the real-life Maria?

I was really, really dying to meet her, and I was quite nervous when it finally came about. I walked into the room and we just sort of shook hands. I'd been given a half-hour time slot, and I didn't know where to begin. ‘I'm just an actor, and I'm going to ask you a silly question, I'm sure of it, and look what you lived through and went through.’ So I just sat there and thought ‘I'll wait until she talks.’

And then she started to well up, and as did I. It was like her whole story was told just in one look. Anyway, then we held each other – and I know it sounds really corny – but that's who she is. It's like she's living on a different level. If I met her today without knowing that she'd gone through the tsunami, I'd probably be intimidated by her because she has a different view on life. I'm just full of cynicism and slightly jaded. She just thinks life is extraordinary and just living every moment and without fear.

Was this one of the hardest films you’ve shot, because you had to focus on both the emotional and the physical elements at once?

That was sort of the second part of the film: the first part is all physical, and then it's lying down. I was worried about this because it's one position, and she's losing blood. She's losing energy, closer and closer to death, and how do you do a bunch of scenes where you're forced into one position? How do you make them different beats? But again, talking to Maria, she was never going to allow herself to face death until it was done. She wasn't dying until she was dead, basically. So she was still continuing to fight, and whether that came out, manifested in humor or telling her son to focus on other people. That was really important to her.

The relationship between Maria and her son was so delicate, and must have been quite a challenge to pull off.

Going back to why I wanted to do this movie was because of that relationship as well. It was such an intimate – and maybe because I'm the mother of boys, it really spoke to me. She had to go through something that no parent wants for their child, which is put herself in the responsibility, in the hands of her son. So he grew up in two days basically – yeah, an incredibly, incredibly difficult position to be in. I spoke with him. Maria was more articulate. He was very young. Maria was more open about it. Maria wrote long, long letters. A couple of times she was there, once in Spain, when we were in the water tank, and then the whole family came to Thailand. When she wasn't there, she would write endless emails about each scene. Every time we changed location she would talk in great detail about everything, so it was just incredibly helpful.

In some movies the makeup is all about enhancing your glamour, but that’s not the case here.

It's actually easier. I'm telling a story. It has to be truthful. There is no vanity. I think it's much harder with the pressure of having to look good. I remember one time someone came up while we were shooting a scene in the hospital, and I had the mask, and it was creating a double chin, and someone said ‘We should move that.’ And I was like, ‘Don't touch it!’ because I suddenly became reminded of my vanity. It aggravated me. And so what if there's a double chin? Do you think she's thinking about that at that point, or anyone else is?

Tom Holland, is just an amazing young actor. He steps up and goes toe to toe with you in every scene.

He blows me off the screen!

What kind of rehearsal time did you have with Tom to establish that relationship of mother and son?

We worked together for about a month – and hats off to Juan Antonio, because he really set a great tone for us by creating this space and room for us to get to know each other intimately very quickly. We basically did all these weird acting exercises. Some of them were goofy and had us in fits of laughter. Some of them were very emotional and had us wiping the tears and snot from each other's faces. We would improvise scenes. We would do the real scenes as per dialogue. It took three, four weeks. The first scene, I remember vividly: he had us sit in front of each other and draw each other. And I was like, ‘What is this?’ And then it was just like, it didn't matter what it was. It was just to sit and look at each other and be okay with that and be comfortable with one another.

The Golden Globes, hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, will be broadcast live on NBC Jan. 13.

Steven Spielberg's civil-war set drama "Lincoln" led the way with seven nods when the Hollywood Foreign Press announced the Golden Globe Award nominations in Hollywood.

Proof once again that when it comes to getting attention at the Globes, the more historical your vehicle (real or imagined) the more love the Hollywood Foreign Press is likely to bestow.

A quick look back at films that have walked away winners at the Globes for best picture in either a drama or comedy/musical show a long history for works that imagine the past: "Amadeus" (1985), "Out of Africa" (1986), "The Last Emperor" (1988), "Driving Miss Daisy" (1990), "Schindler's List" (1994), "Titanic" (1998), "Shakespeare in Love" (1999), "Gladiator" (2001), "Chicago" (2003), "The Aviator" (2005) and "Dreamgirls" (2007).

It's only been in recent years that the HFPA has cast its eyes more consistently to current times, rewarding films such as "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008), "The Social Network" (2011) and "The Descendants" (2011).

That streak looks to be threatened with "Lincoln's" seven nominations, among them best director for Spielberg, best drama, best screenplay and acting honors for Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones. These follow in the wake of four earlier nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and a record-breaking 13 nominations for the Critics Choice Movie Awards.

"Django Unchained," Quentin Tarantino's brutal revenge western, also received a large helping of award nomination love. The film, which scored Globe nominations for best drama, director, supporting actors (Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz) and screenplay, was completely shut out of the Screen Actors Guild nominations in favor of "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Les Miserables."

History-based drama from a more modern age was acknowledged with the Ben Affleck-directed Iran hostage crisis thriller "Argo" muscling in with four nominations for best drama, director, supporting actor (Alan Arkin) and screenplay.

And in the comedy-musical category, "Les Miserables" is the heavy-weight contender to compete with "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Salmon Fishing in Yemen," "Silver Linings Playbook."

When it came to small screen fare, it was history-in-the-making that received the most attention. The Sarah Palin biopic "Game Change" racked up five nominations for best miniseries, actor (Woody Harrelson), actress (Julianne Moore), supporting actor (Ed Harris) and supporting actress (Sarah Paulson). Coming in second with four nods was the terrorist plot-based series "Homeland" up for best drama, actor (Damian Lewis), actress (Claire Danes) and supporting actor (Mandy Patinkin).

Another notable inclusion here was "Political Animals," the now canceled TV drama that revolved around a Hillary Clinton-esque Washington politician played by Sigourney Weaver that will compete for best miniseries and best actress (Weaver). The stiff upper lip of PBS darling "Downton Abbey" received three nominations: best drama, best actress (Michelle Dockery) and supporting actress (Maggie Smith, who also was named to the best actress comedy/musical category for "Quartet").

Offering up accolades in categories that cover drama, comedy and musicals on both big and small screens, it's no surprise the remaining list of nominees for the award ceremony set for Jan. 13 comprises a mixed bag of familiar names (Meryl Streep for "Hope Springs", Helen Mirren for "Hitchcock," Julia Louis-Dreyfus for "Veep"), already celebrated titles ("Les Miserables," "Zero Dark Thirty" with four nominations apiece) and few new, or left field inclusions ("Salmon Fishing in the Yemen," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Girls," the leading ladies of "Nashville").

"Yemen" - a gentle, comedy of manners from Britain - was a big surprise when it was announced it would compete in the best comedy/musical category as well as best acting for leads Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor. Released in March, the inclusion has turned the audience-appreciated yet oddly titled indie into the dark horse of the Globes.

New additions to this year's race are Connie Britton and Hayden Panetierre, who showed their singing chops on TV's "Nashville" to earn nominations for best actress and best supporting actress respectively. The love-it or loathe-it HBO series "Girls" scored two times for best series comedy and best actress (show creator and writer Lena Dunham). And Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom," also from HBO, is up for best series drama and best actor Jeff Daniels.

Wes Anderson’s films have long been Oscar bait but ignored by the HFPA. "Moonrise Kingdom's" elevation to the best picture comedy/musical category is a pleasant surprise, though it was the only recognition it received with Anderson failing to score a berth in the best director category.

A small screen snub went to "Mad Men," left hanging with only one nomination going to Jon Hamm in the best actor drama category.

Following last years' Globe love-fest of raunchy comedy "Bridesmaids," rumors swirled that the potty-mouthed teddy bear buddy comedy "Ted," directed by Seth MacFarlane, would be up for acknowledgment. No such luck as the Mark Wahlberg vehicle was noticeably absent when the nominees were revealed.

Adding extra comedy fodder to their hosting duties is the race between Amy Poehler ("Parks and Recreation") and Tina Fey ("30 Rock"), both named to the best actress TV comedy category. With former Globe winner Fey and former nominee Poehler both riding high on their current television success, the biggest winners on the night could end up being the viewers.

The Golden Globes, hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, will be broadcast live on NBC Jan. 13.

Photo Credit: jonathanolley.co.uk]]>Mon, 05 Jan 2015 18:36:35 -0400http://media.nbcwashington.com/images/213*120/golden_globes.jpgFrom Emma Thompson to Michelle Williams, take a look back at the last two decades of Golden Globe-winning movie actresses.

Photo Credit: Getty Images]]>Mon, 05 Jan 2015 18:35:55 -0400Claire Danes (above) of "Homeland" was named Best Actress in a Drama, and Laura Dern of "Enlightened" was named Best Actress in a Comedy.]]>Claire Danes (above) of "Homeland" was named Best Actress in a Drama, and Laura Dern of "Enlightened" was named Best Actress in a Comedy.]]>http://media.nbcwashington.com/images/160*232/137119023_10.jpgTwo decades of TV legends.

Sir Ian McKellen made the seemingly impossible transition in his early 60s from genius-level stage actor to beloved super villain and wizard of the silver screen. Now 73, McKellen is reprising the role of Gandalf for his third tent-pole trilogy, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."

"The Hobbit," which opens Friday, finds Gandalf enlisting Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) to join him and a band of 13 dwarves on a journey to slay the dragon Smaug and reclaim the treasure and mountain home of the dwarves.

McKellen held court at a recent New York City press conference, along with co-stars Elijah Wood, Richard Armitage, Freeman and Andy Serkis, to discuss the film.

In response to Armitage discussing what it's like to join an established franchise:

"It's not a franchise. They're films—this isn't 'X-men.'"

On putting a character behind you after shooting a film:

If you're acting away for film, it will be with a certain intensity… what you might have difficulty shaking off when you remove the costume and the make up is not the character, but the effort you put into it. The fact that it was difficult today or it was joyfully easy, or there was something you didn’t quite get right or were struggling over, and that effort, that's what you'll be thinking of. Rather than having been lost in the world of Middle Earth.

On who he prefers playing, Gandalf the White or the Grey:

Well, Gandalf the White in the second of the "Lord of the Rings" movies is on a mission and he has to save the world, or help save the world. And so he's cut his beard down to size and he's gone white in the process and he doesn’t have any jokes, no time for jokes. That's the story where the hero doesn’t make it back home. Bilbo gets back home because he's on an adventure, it's different. So he doesn’t need Gandalf the White to look after him, he needs the old, the grey, a man he can have a smoke with and a drink with and tick him off maybe, but they’ve learned to like each other's company and to trust each other. It's much more humane as befits the quality of the adventure they're going on. So there's a bit more range for the actor in Gandalf the Grey, and it's selfishly why I prefer doing him.

On how he played Gandalf differently this time:

Young Gandalf is younger, 60 years younger. I don't know, I just played him the same, didn’t I? I don't know, I'm trying to think… both of these films, these six films as there are going to be, in future will be viewed in the order not that they were filmed but in the order of the story, and it is going to be a little bit alarming for them to see, as it were, everyone getting younger. The technology… do you remember Gollum in the first movie? He looked like a glove puppet, and that's going to be a real shock when they go from "The Hobbit," with all this wonderful technology…

On J.R.R. Tolkien's world view:

I think there are limitations in Tolkien's view of the world. I mean, where is sex? Where are women? But, in other aspects, he is absolutely bang up to date. He takes old people very seriously, and gives them full weight and due. Young people, he's very keen on... And I think the message that has resonated with everyone who's read the books or seen the film is that, yes, the world is organized by people who are extremely powerful and… they are entirely dependent on the little guy. And for someone to be through two world wars to accept that, it's not the great people we build statues to change the world, it's the foot soldiers who measure up to the moment.

On claims that Peter Jackson's decision to turn a 320-page book into a trilogy was financially driven:

Anyone who thinks peter Jackson would fall for market forces rather than the artistic imperative, doesn’t know the guy... If we'd just made one movie of "The Hobbit," the fact is that all the fans, and I'm thinking now of the 8, 9 10-year-old boys and girls, they would watch it a thousand times. Well, they’ve now got three films they can watch a thousand times—it isn’t enough. And if you don’t quite plug into that, I sympathize with you, but these movies are not for you. Talk to any 9-year-old, they haven't just seen "Lord of the Rings" once, they've seen it twice, maybe three times--in a day. And how much better they should be seeing that, I mean a great film, I must say, with huge artistic endeavor and achievement, rather than other things they could be watching.

On working with Cate Blanchett, who plays Galadriel, the Elf Queen:

We had appeared in the same scene at the end of the final "Lord of the Rings" movie, but we hadn’t met. We met at a party... they photographed us separately. But for these two weeks, there she was in person. We have such a congenial relationship, because she's running practically the National Theater of Australia in Sydney, we had so much to talk about plays and everything else, as well as the fun of making a movie. And we got extremely close and affectionate with each other—her husband wasn't around—there was a moment when she adjusted my hair, but I think it was Cate rather than Galadriel, and I think it's made it into the movie, and I'm still rather shaken...

On what he learned about himself while shooting "The Hobbit":

I learned what I already knew, that I still have got a long way to go in terms of acting. I'm single, and Steve Thompson, a person that we all know because he's a wonderful cook, was looking me after in Wellington. He's also a masseur…and my whole life was living with this man—not having sex, he's straight—but I discovered that I got very, very, very used to the idea of being totally cossetted and looked after by somebody. He drove me everywhere, he got on my nerves an awful lot, but – Oh Steve I miss you…

Historical dramas "Lincoln" and "Les Miserables" and modern dramedy "Silver Linings Playbook" lead the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations with four each.

The list of films in contention for the awards were announced early Wednesday morning in Los Angeles. Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," the film adaptation of the Victor Hugo stage musical "Les Miserables" and "Silver Linings Playbook" were all nominated for best ensemble cast along with the Ben Affleck-directed Iran-hostage thriller "Argo" and ex-pat British comedy "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."

Historical dramas also held sway when it came to primetime television nods for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series with the prohibition-era set "Boardwalk Empire" facing off against the stiff upper lip of PBS darling "Downton Abbey" and "Mad Men." "Homeland" and "Breaking Bad" round out the category.

The list lands just a day prior to the announcement of the nominations for the Golden Globes, and ramps up anticipation for a busy awards season that culminates with the Academy Awards in February.

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series30 ROCK, THE BIG BANG THEORY, GLEE, MODERN FAMILY, NURSE JACKIE, THE OFFICE

LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Screen Actors Guild 49th Annual Life Achievement AwardDICK VAN DYKE

]]>Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:56:15 -0400http://media.nbcwashington.com/images/213*120/cher2.jpgCher chats at the premiere of "Inventing David Geffen" about the first time she met David. What was her first impression of him? Plus, how has their friendship blossomed over the years?

"Zero Dark Thirty," the new film about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, has been dominating the early awards season, having racked up a few Best Picture nods, as well as honors for director Kathryn Bigelow, screenwriter Mark Boal and star Jessica Chastain. "The Hurt Locker," Bigelow's and Boal's previous collaboration, earned them Globe nominations—this new film should improve on that success, with an additional nod for Chastain, and possibly co-star Jason Clarke.

Other dramas expected to be in the mix will be Ben Affleck's "Argo," about the rescue of six Americans during the Iran Hostage Crisis; Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," with a typically brilliant turn by Daniel Day-Lewis; "Skyfall," among the best 007 films ever made; writer-director Quentin Tarantino's slave-revenge epic "Django Unchained"; and director Ang Lee's "Life of Pi," the lushest, most visually ambitious film of the year.

The Globes also recognize film comedies, too, and this year had lots of inventive ones likely to be included when the nominations happen at 8 a.m. ET Thursday on NBC.

Writer-director Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom" is a sweet and sentimental look at young love, and featured a great cast. "21 Jump Street" and "Ted" caught everyone by surprise and are good candidates.

"Pitch Perfect," starring Anna Kendrick as a reluctant a capella singer, has already made one top 10 list; the silver-haired rom-com "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" is right in the Globes' wheelhouse with its British pedigree and aging stars; and "Silver Linings Playbook," starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro is the thinking person's feel-good comedy of 2012.

Unfortunately, much of the Golden Globe success they enjoy will be mostly limited to the nominations, as there's an 800-pound gorilla looming: "Les Miserables." Comedy films are lumped together with Musicals, and the Hollywood Foreign Press is a sucker for a musical, naming one best picture five times in the last 11 years.

And "Les Mis" has it all, with a director (Tom Hooper) and five cast members (Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Helena Bonham-Carter and Sacha Baron-Cohen) who've previously been nominated for Globes, as well as a new song from Claude-Michel Schonberg, the film will likely be nominated in at least six categories, and possibly seven if they decide to put Anne Hathaway up as a lead actress.

The frontrunners among the TV dramas are mostly seasoned veterans—"Mad Men," "Breaking Bad," "Game of Thrones"—or reigning champions, like "Homeland," but there's one noticeable, and controversial, newcomer.

Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom," made a splash last season. Its rapid-fire dialog, strident lefty politics and dubious portrayal of women had people talking from the first episode to the last. The HFPA has nominated Sorkin's film work five times in the past, and "The West Wing," which he created, was nominated 20 times. For all the show's problems, star Jeff Daniels has been excellent, making even the weakest episodes somewhat compelling, and should find his name called.

There also is a new wrinkle in the TV categories: "Downton Abbey." The PBS drama had previously run as a miniseries, but now confesses it is a full-fledged series. With "Downton" out of the miniseries field, it clears the way for the A&E western "The Hatfield & McCoys" and HBO's "Game Change," about John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin for his running mate in the 2008 presidential election.

On the comedy side of the aisle, two other shows from HBO's Sunday night lineup are the most likely to get some love Thursday morning. "Girls" and its creator, Lena Dunham, were among the most controversial figures on the television landscape, with legions of people watching the show just to hate it and others watching it to love it. "Girls" and its creator have ridden a roller coaster of backlash and backlash against the backlash, but it's a great show and is sure to be nominated.

And then there's "Veep," starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the ceaselessly put-upon vice president. JLD has already won the Emmy for this role, and the HFPA has nominated her three times in the past, so she's apt to get another nod.

If you're looking for the HFPA to recognize a dark horse or sentimental favorite, Larry Hagman, who passed away Nov. 23, could get the nod for reprising his role as oil tycoon J.R. Ewing in TNT's reboot of "Dallas." The HFPA nominated Hagman for the role four times when the show originally aired in the '80s.

The Golden Globes nominations will air at 8 a.m. ET Thursday on NBC. The awards, hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, will be broadcast on NBC Jan. 13.

With 70 years of history behind them, the Golden Globes are one of the longest running and most prestigious awards ceremonies in show business. Here's a few fun facts and figures of Hollywood’s most freewheeling gala.

* The Globes are known for a more relaxed, freewheeling atmosphere – largely due to the widespread availability of spirits, wine and champagne during dinner. The anything-goes attitude dates back to 1958, when during the height of their Rat Pack fame Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr., grew so bored with the too-stuffy proceedings that they took over the stage and brought a much-needed anarchy to the ceremony.

* The Globes’ most honored actor to date is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Meryl Streep, who has collected a record eight trophies over the course of her fabled career. Unless, of course, you count the honorary wins – including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and the now defunct Henrietta Award for World Film Favorite Actress – that put Barbra Streisand over the top with nine. Still, Streep still tops the charts among nominations, with 26 total nods as of 2012.

* After hosting four ceremonies between 1961 and 1972, the world-famous Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills became the seemingly permanent home of the Golden Globes in 1974, hosting each consecutive gala for nearly 40 years.

* In 1963 the HFPA introduced a trophy girl for the ceremony carrying the title of Miss Golden Globe, and by the 1970s tradition dictated that the honoree be the offspring (usually the daughter, but also the occasional son) of at least one famous Hollywood parent. Among the Miss Golden Globes who have gone on to claim their own fame: Anne Archer, Melanie Griffith, Laura Dern, Joely Fisher, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Dakota Johnson and Rumer Willis. The 2013 Miss Golden Globe is Franchesca Eastwood, the daughter of actor-director Clint Eastwood and actress Frances Fisher.

* The Globes have had a long relationship with television: the ceremony originally aired locally in Los Angeles beginning in 1958, and then nationally as part of NBC’s “The Andy Williams Show” starting in 1962 before the network made it a national special in 1964. After concerns were raised in 1968 by the Federal Communications Commission about how the award winners were determined behind the scenes, NBC instituted a broadcast ban that lasted until 1974. By the early 1990s the Globes had become an annual staple of the cable network TBS, until TV personality Dick Clark became the broadcast’s producer and secured a long-term relationship with NBC, beginning in 1996 and continuing today.

* Scandal erupted around the Golden Globes in 1981 when actress and singer Pia Zadora, star of the reviled film “Butterfly,” received the New Star of the Year Award, beating out such promising competition as Kathleen Turner and Elizabeth McGovern and sparking rumors that the voting had been influenced by Zadora’s wealthy, much-older financier husband Meshulam Ricklis in an attempt to purchase stardom for his young wife. The luster of the Globes was tarnished in the years immediately following.

* Sharon Stone nearly sparked another controversy in 1999 when, a day after her Globe nomination for her turn in “The Muse,” she had luxe gold Coach watches delivered as gifts to each of the HFPA members – who were instructed by their president to return the timepieces immediately to preserve their awards’ integrity.

* Legendary producer and director Cecil B. DeMille, known for his lavish, flamboyant productions of epics like “Cleopatra” and “The Ten Commandments” in the silent and early sound era, received the Globes’ first lifetime achievement-style award in 1947, which was named in his honor. A major force in Hollywood is given the DeMille Award – a short sampling of the prestigious list of recipients includes Walt Disney, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Sean Connery, Sophia Loren, Shirley Maclaine, Harrison Ford, Steve Spielberg and Robert DeNiro. The honoree for 2013 is Jodie Foster.

* The ceremony itself has been cancelled only once, in 2008, when the ongoing Hollywood writers strikes threatened to create picket lines and cause actors to stay home in solidarity. Instead the awards were announced with no celebrity presence during a low-key press conference at the Hilton.

* For many years the Globes were traditionally broadcast without a master of ceremonies. That changed in 2010 when comedian Ricky Gervais assumed hosting duties, and although he created a small firestorm of controversy with his harsh but wickedly funny, never-ending jibes at both the attending celebrities and members of the foreign press, Gervais stirred up so much attention that he was invited back to host the following two ceremonies. For the 2013 Globes, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are sharing the hosting podium.

Mastermind behind the legendary Batmobile, the King of Kustomizers said it’s time to put the crime-fighting (sort of) machine up for auction.

"We as, as our family, that we would like to share it worldwide," said Batmobile owner George Barris.

It hits the auction block in January, set to leave its home since 1966 at Barris Kustom City shop in Riverside.

"It will always be a Barris Batmobile and the main concern is that it really goes to the right owner that can share it with the world forever," said Goji Barris, George’s daughter.

The original one-off 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car was originally created by Ford Motor Company and a design team at the Lincoln Styling Department, according to Barris' website. The 19-foot long, two-seat, bubble-topped grand touring car prototype was entirely hand-built in 1954 by Ghia Body Works in Turin, Italy.

Ford sold it to Barris for $1. In 1965, 20th Century Fox gave him three weeks and $15,000 to turn it into the Batmobile.

All of Batman’s gadgets were courtesy of Barris' imagination and the result was the first time a car became a star. And for those interested in making a bid: the car comes, of course, complete with a Bat Phone.

The Batmobile will leave Barris Kustom City shop on Tuesday, when it will be put on a trailer and taken to Scottsdale, Ariz., for the auction.

]]>Fri, 07 Dec 2012 18:56:39 -0400http://media.nbcwashington.com/images/213*120/samantha+Bark.jpgSamantha Barks comes from the Musical version of "Les Miserables." and now she reveals how she transitioned to the film version. So,did her big screen co-stars learn anything from her?

Sure, we all know the Golden Globes is the freewheeling, prom-style get together of the awards season where celebrities eat, drink and get more merry than any other of the major ceremonies. It's the Prince Harry to the Academy Awards' Prince William, if you will.

But do you actually know who the Hollywood Foreign Press Association - the group behind those golden orbs handed out each January - actually are? Thought not. Let's take a look back and see where it all began ...

Origins

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has its origins in the early 1940s as America was being drawn into World War II. Audiences looking for a diversion from the doom and gloom of the then modern times sought escape at the cinema, demanding more and more entertainment product from Hollywood.

Amid the global tension, a handful of Los Angeles-based foreign journalists banded together to share information and contacts as they covered the U.S. entertainment industry in the overseas press. Throughout the remainder of the war the group saw its numbers grow and informal gatherings were first held in private Hollywood homes before moving to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel as the location for meetings.

The mission of the HFPA is:

To establish favorable relations and cultural ties between foreign countries and the United States of America by the dissemination of information concerning the American culture and traditions as depicted in motion pictures and television through news media in various foreign countries ...

To recognize outstanding achievements by conferring annual Awards of Merit, serving as a constant incentive within the entertainment industry, both domestic and foreign, and to focus wide public attention upon the best in motion pictures and television ...

To contribute to other nonprofit organizations connected with the entertainment industry and involved in educational, cultural, and humanitarian activities ...

To promote interest in the study of the arts, including the development of talent in the entertainment field through scholarships given to major learning institutions.

Early Awards

The first Golden Globe Awards ceremony was held at 20th Century Fox in 1944. "The Song of Bernadette" won best picture, Jennifer Jones won best actress for her performance in that movie, and Paul Lukas won best actor for "Watch on the Rhine." The physical awards back then existed in the form of scrolls.

Advent of the Statue

1945 saw the arrival of the now famous statue which was created following a design contest. Marina Cisternas, president of the group in 1945-46, presented the concept of a golden globe encircled with a strip of motion picture film, and mounted on a pedestal.

Landmark Moments

In 1951 the association decided to divide the best film, actor and actress nominees into two categories — drama, and musical or comedy — so that no genre would be left out.

In 1952, the HFPA created the Cecil B. DeMille Award to recognize “outstanding contribution to the entertainment field.” The award’s first recipient was DeMille himself. Jodie Foster will receive the award at next year's ceremony.

Television categories were included in 1955 with the honorees for Best Television Show being "Lucy & Desi," "Dinah Shore," "The American Comedy" and "Davy Crockett."

Miss/Mr. Golden Globe

The 50 year tradition - which involves assisting during the awards ceremony - traditionally goes to the son or daughter of a Tinseltown celebrity. Francesca Eastwood (daughter of six-time Globe winner, Clint, and actress Frances Fisher) will take on the honor for the 2013 ceremony. Her sister Kathryn was a previous Miss Golden Globe, in 2005. Other celebrity offspring who have taken on the role include Linda Evans, Anne Archer, Melanie Griffith, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rumer Willis.